Lucas House Diary: April 19, 2025

With the snow all gone, it was time to survey the damage winter has done. The garden isn’t looking pretty right now, which is to be expected. So I gave it a haircut.

The snow flattened most of the Little Bluestem stalks. As you know, I like to leave as much vegetation standing in the winter as possible – there were still seeds on the Bluestem on it for the birds. But after the thick blanket of snow we had… well, a lot of it was looking like a mat of dead stuff.

While I prefer to leave things standing longer in case insects are sitting out winter in the stems, the garden was looking pretty unsightly, which is not great in such a prominent position. So I removed the stems that were flattened and left those that were standing. It was a bit of a dollar store haircut, but once things start growing again, the stubble will be covered and then decay.

I left the rest of the stems standing – plenty of swamp milkweed, for example, in case there are things sleeping in the stems. And, to my mind, the spent seed heads are still attractive.

As I cleared some of the brush, I could see the first signs of spring: Wild Strawberry leaves and Prairie Smoke foliage. These are some of the earliest plants to green up at Lucas House.

Also greening up were some patches of lawn. Cool-season grasses, which we use on our lawns and which come from Europe, green up early. Last year, they were crowded out by my plants… I will see if that happens this year, and if not, I will take action.

Indeed, this summer will see some renovations at Lucas House. We’ll be doing some experiments, particularly to counter the deer pressure the garden faces.

So watch this space!

Simon